An atypical Christmas, is your e-commerce team ready?

Definitely this coming Christmas will be very different from the past and businesses must be prepared to be able to actively participate in an increasingly digital commercial ecosystem. The measures taken by governments to contain the contagion of COVID-19, quarantines, vehicle restriction, distancing, masks, etc., have had a powerful effect on the way we consume services. It is said that the effect of this situation, which at the technology level was expected to be achieved in 6 years, has accelerated and in many cases in 6 months what would normally take years to implement has been achieved. Christmas represents for many of us, an important moment on a family, personal and spiritual level. And parallel to this, we cannot ignore that commercially, it is one of the most important times of the year. If to this we add that in Latin America the commercial dates for Black Friday and Cyber Monday have already been established in one way or another, we have a commercial opportunity that runs from October to December.

But are businesses really ready for this new form of electronic commerce? Well, here we are going to see three topics that you can review to improve the performance of your e-commerce this Christmas.

1.Clear Objectives

In order to properly mount the strategy, first you have to define clear objectives, of what we want to achieve. This definition has to be SMART:

• Specific: Lead generation, new clients, visits to the website, etc.
• Measurable: Just as it is specific, we must also be able to measure it and give it follow-up (tracking).
• Achievable: Avoid frustration and set an achievable goal.
• Relevant: It is important to align the objectives with the strategic vision of the business and not improvise.
• Temporary: You must put a date on them and be totally clear about when they should be reached.

A couple of examples, to help you understand:

• Generate X amount of new leads before Christmas.
• Increase the subscriber base by X% before Cyber Monday

As we can see, we are indicating very specific things that we can measure and limit in time, so we can focus our efforts clearly.

2.Put together a plan.

Now we have to define a clear plan of how we are going to achieve our objectives and what resources we are going to use.

• The audience we are going to work with must be clearly defined (buyer persona), in order to send the correct message to each audience. Consider that, since it is Christmas, you have to understand if the purchases are personal or rather, they are gifts for family or friends.
• How is your client's buyer journey? It is extremely powerful to be clear about how your ideal client goes through all the stages (recognition, consideration and decision).
• Does your value proposition adapt to the needs and lifestyle of your client?
• The Christmas season is a special time to create an emotional bond with your audience, so send that key message, which drives that emotional purchase.
• Consider which social networks are themost appropriate for your client and mount your campaign on them.
• To specify your plan, develop a calendar that includes the details of your campaign with the following elements:

- Content to carry your message.

- Channels in which you are going to publishoDate and time, to have each item ready.

- This for each of your buyer persona.

- Budget for each initiative.

3.Help your customer to buy.

It has happened to all of us that we are going to buy a gift and we have no idea what to buy, will you like it? Do you already have one? Did I give you this before? Well this is where we can support ourselves with technology; With e-commerce systems, CRM, our B2C website, etc., we can achieve great things.

• Collect data from our customers in our systems, it will allow us tosuggest items, indicate if it is an item that you already bought in the past or show you the complement that matches that item that you already selected.
• Include seasonal specials, quantity discounts, free delivery, lower priced add-ons, and more.
• Leveraging technology is definitely going to be a competitive advantage and today you have excellent software options like Magento and HubSpot.
• Another advantage that you can get from these platforms is having a quick response to your customers' queries, with the support of chatbots that will lighten the load in this regard and you will also achieve the much desired omnichannel approach, (in our next post We will talk about this, wait for him).
• Keeping social networks active is essential in these times, your customers will be browsing networks, looking for gift ideas, looking for home delivery and the added value that we provide, can make a difference and motivate them to buy from you.
• Sending a consistent message in the different digital channels will allow you to better position yourself in the minds of your clients and therefore facilitate their consideration process.

In conclusion, to prepare our e-commerce environment for this Christmas season, which will be characterized by an increase in online sales over traditional sales, we leave several tips that will help you have a more robust strategy for to work.

We know that there are many other things that can be done, but we are not going to overwhelm you with too many tasks, which possibly due to the time we have left to prepare we will not be able to develop in the best way.

So do not worry and start reviewing each of the steps that we have discussed and improve everything you can, I assure you that every effort you make will help you achieve your goals.